Admirable Photographer

Wildlife photographer Greg du Toit was so determined to capture the perfect image of wild lions drinking he sat submerged in their watering hole for three months.

The defiant photographer had endured a year of failed attempts at getting the right picture after building hides and digging trenches near the animals' drinking spot.


My goodness. He actually submerged himself just to capture the perfect moment? He definitely deserves to be lauded for both the huge amount of sacrifice made and the touted pictures he had taken. Definitely a true spirit of a photographer; taking the radical moves just to realise what he wants to achieve.


He reminds of a sniper who can sit there waiting for 3 days just for his target to appear. But this is on a different level, because he actually submerged himself in water for 3 months. Definitely a lot more acerbic when it comes to the comparison of the conditions both had to endure.


Let's take a look at some of the pictures he had taken. Go ahead and scrutinize them because every single details is worth staring at.


An incandescent masterpiece I must say

Look at the 4 on the right. So cute, they are actually drinking in unison.


The following 2 are actually looking in the same direction. I wonder what are they looking at.


The one that follow on their left is actually staring at the camera. Probably using its animal instinct to the optimum level I postulate.

Look at this cute family of warthogs enjoying themselves by the pool.

They really seem to be relaxing and basking under the red hot sun.

Once again, the lionness on the right is actually looking into the camera.

Definitely animal instincts at work I swear.

But to my dismay, it was not just the submerging that was tough, in fact, Greg du Toit suffered damages far worse than we can possibly imagine.


"It came at a huge price for the photographer who was diagnosed with Bilharzia and contracted several parasites which he soaked up through the dirty water in the drinking hole. Mr du Toit was also diagnosed with deadly malaria twice after contracting it through mosquitoes breeding in the pool."
 
 
Bear in mind, it is deadly malaria we are talking about here. Furthermore, he has contacted it twice. On normaly occasions, normal humans will start to regret once they contracted the disease once. But, this photographere here remained undaunted even after his life has been put at risk once. When it comes to that disease, everyone will remain on high alert and try to stay away from it as far as possible.
 
 
Conversely, this photographer here bears every single precarious moves he undertakes, just to fulfill his wish to take powerful shots of the lions in the wildlife. Such determination is definitely coveted by many of us.
 
 
Having known that he might die from this mission, he has never once faltered when it comes to decision-making pertaining to this trip.
 
 
Even as he is taking the pictures, his hands are shivering because he is just so amazed by the sight of these animals in the wildlife. So pure and vulnerable in front of the camera.
 
 
This is for sure, something that we can all look up to. As compared to all these arduous tasks, what we do in our everyday life is considered a breeze.
 
 
Perhaps, we should try to increase our own resillience and stop complaining about how tough life is because it really isn't that tough on second thought!
 
 




Credits -dailymail

Cisco Pays, Not

Cisco Systems has nearly $40 billion in cash (Madness). Maybe when Cisco gets to $50 billion it will finally feel comfortable using some of that moolah to pay a dividend.

To that end, Cisco says on its investor relations Web site that while the company "routinely" evaluates whether to pay a dividend, it believes that the stock buyback program and strategic investments "are in the best interest of our shareholders."


The above mentioned is the point of view from the management.


But most of the public who invested in the company yearn for dividends instead of the company making acquisitons and investments.

Hmmm... I find it pretty intriguing in the sense that should is this a long term versus short term conundrum again?


For the people looking into the long term, there is a proclivity for the liking towards the invested company pouring the money into R&D instead and eventually the money will come back to them.


What if I tell you that the company has been doing R&D for the past few decades already and they have made billions out of it, but none of it went into the investors' pockets.


Don't you think it's more of a vicious cycle here? This is the case where the company just made future promises and that future just never seems to solidify.


Conversely, you might think of people who ask for a return/dividend as being myopic. But how sure are you that they weren't once the people who thought about the long-term goal in the past?


Perhaps, they have waited far too long for the return that they just lost all their patience.

I trust that this case is synonymous to the infamous remuneration versus culture point in all corporate organisations.



Some companies believe that a great culture will motivate people and that random events will boost morale. However, does that mean that you can cut back on the incentives like bonuses and perquisites?


The answer is no. In actual fact, we humans need both soft and hard. Soft as in culture and hard as in cold-hard cash. It is imperative that we strike and sustain that impeccable balance throughout in order to stay at the top.

There will be a point in time whereby an increment in pay will not satisfy us anymore. Till then, we will need the culture to boost our pride and morale.


Similarly in Cisco's case, I believe that they should pay dividends once in a while for people to buy into their strategic long term plan.


Otherwise, people might just leave for other companies like Hewlett-Packard or IBM.



Credits -cnn, -skymetercorp, -smh, -banksavingsaccounts, -informationr

Google in the RED

Yes, apparently Google has just got itself stuck to some mess.


The European antitrust officials are right on Google's tail now because of the recent reports by 3 companies, complaining about its practices.

For the benefit of everyone, antitrust officials are actually people who look into operations of corporations who try to obtain huge market share and devoid its competitors of any potential profits or competition. They try to block off the path either by colluding with them or by forcing them into an impasse with a low price on their products.


However, in this case, they are complaining that Google is suppressing the ranking of its competitors in its search results.

What's the big deal you might ask. How does this trap its competitors or whatsoever?


Well, simply put, by now showing the ranking of its competitors, people are not sure about the presence of these other search engines. Thus, they will be misleaded and come under the conclusion that the market share of these other search engines are way too pathetic to be even mentioned. In turn, they will continue to use Google as they trust that a search engine with a huge market share is bound to be reliable.


"This kind of scrutiny goes with the territory when you are a large company," senior competition counsel Julia Holtz said on the company's European Public Policy blog.

As mentioned, when you are famous and stuff, people will stare at you with jealousy. If you are not careful, your competitors might just form coalitions just to bring you down.


It isn't always bad being the prominent one though. For instance, look at Apple, recently it has introduced iPad and apparently it has been condemned by quite a number and many companies are trying to sue Apple now because they claim to have possessed a patent for the iPad which they themselves have come up with a while back.


This might seem like a huge mistake by Apple but when you look at it the other way round, it is not seemingly the case.

For instance, do you notice that the term iPad has been used even by their competitors? Google mentioned that they want to make their own iPad. Even Google uses the term iPad.


Isn't it very ironic that Apple's competitors are indirectly promoting Apple's brand name in the midst of the charging and stuff.


Google is exactly benefitting from the hype surrounding them as well. No doubt people are chronically complaining and trying to sue them, they are indirectly getting all the free attention that they need as a search engine giant. People will search for the stories more on Google from now onwards and their market share will continue to surge.


All in all, I feel that perhaps they had been plotting this all along, free advertising and a large scale one that has captured all the media's attention. Shrewd indeed.



Credits -cnn, -expertsem, -av-club

Alice in the Wonderland

You can start to play the video and let it load.





In the meantime, you can browse the pictures below.

I'm sure alot of you are familiar with the story of Alice in the Wonderland. At first, I confused myself with the story of Wizard of the Ox because both of the stories are so whimsical in nature.

I'm sure whimsical is the apposite word to describe this movie.

It's invigorating, fun and cheerful.

Definitely a light-heartening movie to watch.

And not forgetting the heavyweight actors and actresses in it like Johnny Depp and Anne Hathaway.

I will be watching it by the way

Wow, the dress she is wearing can easily make it to the runway

Tim Burton, another heavyweight director. So, I doubt you will be dissapointed

Look at the size of the head, it's gargantuan man!

For those of you who have been reading One Piece, you should know that the Red Queen looks like Ivankov from the revolutionary army right?

DEATH WINK!!!

Credits -blogspot, -disneydreaming, -hdwallpapers, -ve3dmedia

FUCK's 21st Part 1/2

Okay, welcome to Fu Qi and Chin Keong's 21st birthday party.

Both of them are my very best friends whom I am extremely blessed and fortunate to have!

It started off an extremely hectic last minute shopping for snacks, disposable utensils and drinks at FairPrice NTUC at Tiong Bahru.

Somehow, I feel that it might be better to do things last minute. Reason being, it gives you the adrenaline rush and for some weird reason, you are actually indulging in whatever you do.

Conversely, if you plan it months beforehand, the enthusiasm which you had before just seems to be emasculated when the actual day arrives.

But of course, not all things can be left to the last minute, please don't misunderstand.

Studying and planning for your future must not be left to the last minute.

As the old adage goes, "Fail to plan, Plan to fail!"

So first up, we had to shop for the chips!

In the end, we didn't get any candies!

Then, we arrived at the chalet.

Surprisingly immaculate toilet

Had to store all the drinks we bought in the fridge. It's not a lot but in fact it was more than enough for the night!

We bought the utensils but in the end, we didn't use it because the caterer provided everything.

Thank god the utensils weren't very costly.

These are the main chips we bought.

We did finish everything throughout the course of the chalet. And to think that I thought that there will be alot of leftovers because I felt that people usually eat out when they go to chalets.

How can you do without a proper set of mahjong? Impossible right?

So after we settled in at around 3pm++, I was left alone in the chalet while Andy went off to Loyang Secondary to teach the kids some music as they have a concert next week. Chin Keong sent his parents home and went on to fetch Fu Qi's parents to the chalet.

He was really late man, he came back at around 730pm

The majority of his friends came at 6pm. Tsk tsk !

So I was left solely in charge of the chalet all by myself. And to my dismay, the caterer guy came at 5pm rather than 6pm. So early.

I had no money to pay him because my friends were all not around. Luckily he said its alright and that he can collect the money at night together with the trays.

He called me and asked if it is possible for him to bring the food in. Seriously, I didn't know that you are not allowed to bring in outside food/catered food into the chalet at Coasta Sands resort at Pasir Ris.

Thank god he surreptitiously brought everything in through the backdoor, circumventing capture by the management team. If there were people patrolling, we would have not been able to get him into the chalet man!

After he set up everything, he said bye to me.

But 5 minutes later, he came back to request help from me. He wanted me to help him top-up his cashcard because he forgot to bring his NETS card out and so I had to travel all the way to the counter to help him top up his cashcard.

But it's alright I guess since I got nothing to do.

Okay, that's about it for the day part but do continue to read the next post for the night activities!

Credits -flickr

FUCK's 21st Part 2/2

Here's part 2 of the night.

So when everyone arrived and stuff, we were all getting ready to cut the cake.

It was really huge.

Olivia came and she brought along with her this new FujiFilm polaroid camera she bought recently.

It costs around $150 which I thought was pretty cheap.

I'm considering of getting one myself but the film is really pricey.

One film costs around $1.20 but I guess it's really going to contain all the precious memories and when you look back at it, somehow you can feel the moments you shared with your friends then.

It's white in colour which I thought was really gorgeous!

So here's the cake, it's really big man!

But it costs $120 for 3kg. At first I thought it was really crazy but then when I knew the market rate, it is actually quite reasonable.

Fu Qi and Family

Fu Qi and friends. I thought the one on the extreme right looks abit like a celebrity.

Fu Qi and his camp mates

Chin Keong and his junior college friends.

Cool story bro?

Chin Keong and his camp mates

Chin keong and us!

Haha, so after the night, most of them went home leaving only a few of us behind. Okay, actually not a few, it was around 9 of us if I'm not wrong.

Then we started to play mahjong which I end up losing and we moved on to minority game (one of Liar's game) and then we went on to Saboteur which caused us all to go wild and crazy because we were all confusing each other throughout the game.

Then, stupid Fu Qi and Siang Meng kept on singing the same songs repeatedly because they wanted to irritate us and stop us from sleeping. But, they gave up at 5am or so. Still, we had really little amount of sleep and the next day was pretty much Mahjong and walking around DownTown East.

At night, we rented bicycles overnight at $15 per bike (reasonable) because they wanted to teach me how to cycle.

They told me that it's really easier to learn at an older age as compared to when I'm a kid.

So I thought why not? Anyway, it's one of my goals to learn to cycle because I really wanted to try out night cycling as it looks really fun and stuff.

I had a total of 5 teachers, namely Siang Meng, Brandon, Chin Keong, Chee Siong and Andy. Thanks to the 5 of them, I managed to learn cycling even though my balancing and turning still suck big time.

Initially, I thought I could not understand what exactly they were talking about. They were yamouring about balancing, on how I had to press onto the right side when I'm about to fall to the left.

It was seriously Greek and at that point in time, I felt despondent, I thought that I will never be able to learn this thing man!

However, they did not give up at all, they continue to push me and teach me patiently and eventually with one final push, I went straight and I was able to balance for the first time.

But, they said that I have a proclivity to ride towards the trees. They term is ATT : Auto Target Tree.

Haha, I must say I really has the bad habit of targetting trees man.

But it was indeed a fun night even though I ended up with a lot of blisters and injuries on my hands and butt. But I guess all is worth it because I have managed to learn a life skill.

Thanks to all my teachers.

It was really a fantastic 21st party, albeit a last minute one, we all had managed to enjoy ourselves thoroughly and all this was thanks to Fu Qi and Chin Keong for covering all our expenses.

Thanks !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Credits -travelizmo

Historical 82nd Oscar Results

The results are out!


And the winners are . . .


Motion Picture: "The Hurt Locker."



The most coveted award of the night and apparently Avatar lost on this one. I'm actually quite shocked because I thought that motion picture was all about how the particles in the movie flow, the fluency of the movements and I felt that Avatar epitomize that fluency. Nonetheless, the Hurt Locker ended up in great exultation after its 6th big win at the big night!

• Actor: Jeff Bridges, "Crazy Heart."

• Actress: Sandra Bullock, "The Blind Side."

One of the best actress living and the best part is that we are going to see so much more of her because she is still so young and youthful!

Nonetheless, I must pay a special tribute to Meryl Streep here because she excels in her performance in "Julie and Julia", truly one of her best I must say. She can even make something so mundane like cooking into an enticing art that managed to suck all of us in. I'm sure the number of people interested in cooking has just increased by ten-folds after the release of the movie. Really a masterpiece, bravo!



• Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, "Inglourious Basterds."






• Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique, "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire."






• Director: Kathryn Bigelow, "The Hurt Locker."

Well well well, we all know it was the infamous David vs Goliath battle between Kathryn Bigelow and James Cameron and Kathryn emerges victorious on this one.


Her movie earns her a total of 6 Oscar awards, making her the biggest winner of the night.


No surprise here to be honest, she really has worked her ass off on this movie and for those of you who have seen the movie, you all should know that it is a near perfect movie. Saying that its fantastic is simply an understatement.


Also, she is the first-ever female director to win the award to date. She more than deserves this honour to be honest.

• Foreign Film: "El Secreto de Sus Ojos," Argentina.






• Adapted Screenplay: Geoffrey Fletcher, "Precious: Based on the Novel `Push' by Sapphire."






• Original Screenplay: Mark Boal, "The Hurt Locker."



• Animated Feature Film: "Up."


I must say that Up is yet another great piece of art developed by Pixar, a movie that is made over decades. It is truly worth the wait. A story about how a passionate young boy who is intrepid, ventures into the dark and evil urban jungle. Really motivating and realistic despite all the fancy cinematography behind the scene.



• Art Direction: "Avatar."


• Visual Effects: "Avatar."


• Cinematography: "Avatar."



Without a shadow of a doubt, Avatar truly deserves the accolade. Best Art direction and cinematography. Avatar deserves no less. I mean just look at the monsters, machines, nature, jungle, tribe members, sky, movement of the plants. Every single detail is so well-taken off and the movie was well controlled as well with a deep subtle message behind it.


One of the best message for me was, "How can we fill a cup that is already full?"

• Sound Mixing: "The Hurt Locker."






• Sound Editing: "The Hurt Locker."

• Original Score: "Up," Michael Giacchino.






• Original Song: "The Weary Kind (Theme From Crazy Heart)" from "Crazy Heart," Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett.






• Costume: "The Young Victoria."



• Documentary Feature: "The Cove."






• Documentary (short subject): "Music by Prudence."






• Film Editing: "The Hurt Locker."



• Makeup: "Star Trek."






• Animated Short Film: "Logorama."






• Live Action Short Film: "The New Tenants."

Oscar winners, director Katheryn Bigelow (L) for the film "The Hurt Locker," Geoffrey Fletcher, best adapted screenplay winner for "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire," Mark Boal, best original screenplay winner for "The Hurt Locker," and former Oscar winner Meryl Streep gather at the Governor's Ball following the 82nd Academy Awards in Hollywood, March 7, 2010.

A bunch of dancers bringing out the essence of each movie nominated for their most original soundtrack.

I felt that their dance was more than just dance. They truly brought out the spirit of each movie as the background music start to play.

The one I liked most is for sure Avatar's. I love that little tribal dance that totally encapsulates the life of the Na'vis. It gives me goosebumps as they dance.

So this brings us to the end of the 82 Oscar's awards, do catch the repeat telecast on Channel 5 tonight if you can make it.

Definitely a worthy programme to watch.

This is probably the least we can do to show our respect and love for our dearest actors, actresses and directors out there!

Credits -yahoo, -allthefestivals

Donatella Versace

Donatella Versace, Gianni's little sister that make the brand Versace even more ubiquitous than ever.

Since the death of her brother, the brand Versace fell apart and it was practically floundering in those hard times.


But Donatella exhibited her flawless public relations skills whereby she made use of her friends Madonna, Elton John and Demi Morre to equate the brand with celebrities.


And POOF, you get the most touted designer brand, Versace.

Just look at the brand design. Doesn't it reminds you of Medusa? Yes one look and you will be petrified.


But this is different, one look and all those eyes of envy staring at you will be left screaming for help because they want what you are wearing!

To die for gowns

Other than gowns and stuff, Donatella has been making impeccable skirts and tops.

She also excels in making coats and men's shirt.

What an unprescedented talent we have here right?

I have never thought of any designers that can possibly design both female and menswear so flawlessly ever before.

This is the first time whereby I agree with most of her designs.

They just seem so congenial and enticing.

It's going to be a fantasy to be able to wear all of those designs man!

Without further ado, please feel free to scrutinize every piece of her designs because she deserve no less!

I'm sure your jaws must have dropped down by now right?


Such a high-end life.


This makes me more motivated to study hard right now.


Credits -about, -sndgems, -luxedeconstruct, -youtube, -youtube

Health Food

"Back in the nineties, the focus was on low-fat, low-sugar products. That's how we were defining healthy. Then it became what we were adding rather than what we were taking away: omega 3, calcium, fiber, probiotics,"


I have to agree that even I am very if not, more conscious of the food that has a healthier choice tag on it. With the recent emphasis on the importance of staying healthy in order to live longer, I have been changing the choice of food I consume. I stay away from the oily ones and stick to the classier ones like pasta, yoghurt rather than ice cream and stuff.

I believe that this can be a great core story for supermarkets who put a lot of emphasis on their food section. Afterall, market data are a lot more motivational than product data. However, a lot of companies are failing in this part because their story are ambiguous and misleading as well. They focused a lot about how good their products are but they did not emphasis enough on how they can benefit the consumers.


"It's very important to have a really simple and clear message. If it's too complicated, even if it's true, it will put customers off," said Hudson.

R&D for food is prevalent throughout the industry now too. It is almost synonymous to the pharmaceutical industry but of course not as extensive and costly. Nonetheless, researchers are trying their best to incorporate certain ingredients into food products that will make it even healthier.


All in all, we need a great product with a great core story backed by precise market data that will not put consumers off. With that strategy, the food product will easily surged to the top on the ranking list.

Credits -marketwatch, -starinc, -motherearthnews